Georgia jury awards $1 billion after guard rapes teen

A Georgia jury has awarded an eye-popping $1 billion verdict against a security company after an apartment complex guard was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl.

Attorney L. Chris Stewart represents the girl's mother. Stewart says the teen was outside by some picnic tables with her boyfriend in October 2012 when an armed security guard approached. Stewart says the guard told the boyfriend not to move and raped the girl.

The guard is identified in the lawsuit as Brandon Lamar Zachary. He was convicted of statutory rape and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

A judge had already determined that Zachary's employer, Crime Prevention Agency, was liable.

The company couldn't be reached for comment.

Georgia State University law professor Jessica Gabel Cino says the verdict will likely be appealed and subsequently reduced.

Police believe the 16-year-old suspect is the slain woman's brother and that he had been living with his sister and her husband, a Savannah police officer, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley told a news conference.

Police believe the 16-year-old suspect is the slain woman's brother and that he had been living with his sister and her husband, a Savannah police officer, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley told a news conference.

(John Wilson/KSL-TV/Deseret News via AP). This frame from video shows the scene of a small plane that crashed into a house in Payson, Utah, on Monday, Aug 13, 2018. Authorities said the pilot was killed in the crash.

His wife and a child who were in the home survived despite the front part the two-story house being engulfed in flames.